Westfield achieves business growth

Global property commercial company, Westfield Group, has today announced that at the end of its first quarter 96.9% of its worldwide portfolio was successfully leased. Against the backdrop of economic retail doom, the firm’s flagship UK

shopping centre, Westfield London, saw retail sales grow by 19.8% year on year in the three months to March 31st 2011.

Trading has slowed over the quarter however with sales up to the start of April growing 23.3 per cent over a 12-month period but shops in the centre are still seeing better business growth then most retailers in the UK.

Westfield is keen to point out that during the same three-month period, the whole UK industry saw sales grow just 0.9 per cent in total and fall 0.8 per cent like-for-like compared to 2010, according to data produced by the British Retail Consortium and KPMG

The group, which currently has 8 retail centres in the UK with 1,281 outlets and as of the end of March occupancy for these sites stood at 99.2% higher than the group average.

Construction of a new London shopping centre, Westfield Stratford, is currently under way at a cost of £1.45 billion and the
company has reported that work towards its opening in
September 2011 is progressing well.

John Burton, Development Director at Westfield Stratford, said: “If we continue at the current rate all retail space will be let at the new shopping centre when it opens. “We’re in good health compared to other major property players.”

Westfield Stratford could create as many as 14,000 new permanent jobs according to economists Volterra Consulting, an important recruitment driver during a period with very few major retail schemes due to be built in the UK in the new few years.